Grandparents
by Scarpaw
Summary: Grandparents- some love you, some hate you. Some give you candy, others let you bake with them. Some love you and your family, while some want to tear what's left of it apart while claiming it's all for the best. Young!Ryou fic


Yeah, no excuse. Got bored, skived off story work, got mauled by plot bunnies, and _voila! _Gave birth to _Grandparents_... Ewww that sounds kinda wrong... XP

Anyway, this is the product of extreme boredom with nothing to do but surf Fanfic, attempt to write story chapters, and not clean my room.

Ages [to clear up confusion beforehand]:

Ryou: Between 3 and 5

Amane: Anywhere from 7 up [Haven't quite decided]

And Bakura doesn't make an appearance... Yet...

Read and enjoy! ^_^

**Disclaimer: Only own the idea. Everything else belongs to their respectful owners.**

_**Grandparents**_

_Grandparents- some love you, some hate you. Some give you candy, others let you bake with them. Some love you and your family, while some want to tear what's left of it apart while claiming it's all for the best._

Twin green eyes stared outside a frost-lined window pane, watching thick clumps of snow descend towards the earth. Two hands- one small, one big -were clasped together, tightly with fingers intertwined, as the remaining hand was placed on the cold glass. They were the perfect scene for a Christmas card, as they enjoyed this moment as if it were their last together.

Which, in actuality, it was.

You see, the two children in the window were Ryou and Amane Bakura. And, not even an hour ago, the verdict of their guardianship had been determined on that cold Christmas Eve. A verdict that neither child had been very happy with.

A little more than a month ago, Ryou and Amane's mother had died in a hit and run, getting broadsided by an oncoming vehicle as she had crossed the street. The jerk who had hit her hadn't even stopped to see if she was still alive, or even bothered to dial for an ambulance. He had just left.

Not that it would have mattered, though. Their mother had been dead the moment her body had hit the asphalt. According to the doctor, she hadn't even had a chance. From the sounds of it, the person who had hit her hadn't even slowed down.

Her funeral had been a small affair, on a day that had a shining sun that seemed way too cheerful the depressing situation that it had been. Their grandparents had taken Amane and Ryou to the funeral, their father barely making it to it on time. Three days later was when everything started.

Their father showing up to the funeral barely on time- a funeral for his own _wife_ -not to mention their grandparents daughter, was the first chip in the foundation. The excuse of him being at the office had been the second. But, the reason as to why he had been at the office was the crack that brought the events rolling to a start.

"The children and I are moving to Japan." He had announced it suddenly during one of the meals at their grandparents' house. Amane had been in the midst of a horribly big bite of spaghetti while Ryou was attempting to discreetly feed his plate to the fat German Shepherd placed in the ideal spot under the table to receive any food it could from the two kids on either side of the table.

Everything had seemed to suddenly stop and was filled with a silence where you could hear a pin drop. While nobody dropped a pin, Ryou did drop the meatball he had been in the middle of giving the dog, and it hit the ground with a wet _slap!_ There was the sound of the dogs' paws scrambling and sliding on the linoleum, racing after the unmoving gob of meat. Nobody bothered to move to scold either Ryou or the dog.

"Japan?" Their grandmother had asked once the shock had passed. "Why Japan? Though, really, it wasn't that hard to figure out. While Ryou and Amane's mother had been from the UK, their father was originally from Japan. He had come over on some archaeology business until he met Ryou and Amane's mother, and, well, the rest was history, so to say.

"They need a new curator at the museum back in my hometown," He answered easily. "Some to supervise the artifacts and to accompany the company digs whenever they need it."

"But what about the children?" Eyes turned to Ryou and Amane, and they quickly bowed their heads to their food, not looking up at the adults, but shooting looks at each other over their half-full plates that meant nothing to the adults but everything to them. "Neither of them knows any Japanese, and what are you going to do with them during the day? Amane may have started school already, but Ryou hasn't! Do you simply plan on leaving him alone all day?"

"You needn't worry about it." Was the cold answer, and not the answer wanted. It was the start of a cold war, and a nasty court battle.

Ryou didn't really understand it all, and Amane couldn't explain it all that well to him. What he knew though, was that his father and grandparents were having a fight over who was able to have him and Amane live with them.

One of the days during the really big fight that the adults were having Amane and Ryou had to go to this building with them rather than the babysitter they were normally dropped off with. They had to go sit on this stand and answer some questions for a person that Amane told him was a law-something in front of a bunch of people, one of them sitting at a desk next to where they had to sit. It was an old lady, almost as old as their grandmother, and she wasn't mean at all even though Ryou threw a fit about not wanting to sit on the chair alone, and she had even allowed him to sit with Amane on the seat while he answered the questions from the law person.

The questions had been simple ones, like, "Do you like living with your dad?" and "How often is your dad home when you're up?"

They had been easy ones, which Ryou answered with, "I like living with daddy." and "He's not home that much…"

They had asked similar questions for his grandparents, and some people had laughed when he had said that he didn't like it when he got yelled at for feeding the dog his food.

There had been more questions, but Ryou couldn't remember them because he had started falling asleep towards the end of the questioning.

It had taken forever, but, eventually, the fighting stopped, and a decision seemed to be reached. A lot of big words had been thrown over his head, and his father and grandparents both seemed upset over the decision, yet they also seemed happy. Like they found something that they both liked about whatever had been decided.

It was once again during supper that the news was dropped. They were having meatloaf and broccoli this time. Like last time, though, Ryou was feeding the dog his food. His meatloaf, to be precise. [It wasn't his fault though that he thought his grandparents made it all icky. He liked his mother's meatloaf better.]

"Ryou, Amane," Their father had spoken calmly and slowly to grasp their attention. "It has been decided as to who you will be living with after the coming New Year."

"Really?" Amane had looked up from her food with excited eyes, her chunk of meatloaf flying from her fork. "What was decided?" There had been a pause, filled with the sound as the dog made it over to the fallen food and snapped it up.

"It was decided that Ryou will come with me to Japan, and you will stay here in England with your grandparents." A minute of silence was all that had been allowed, before Ryou had asked,

"What does that mean?"

It had taken a full hour to stop the tears after the half hour explanation, and it took another hour and a half after that to get Ryou to sleep.

Needless to say, he hadn't taken the news well once it had finally been thoroughly and fully explained to him.

Moving away? To a place he knew nothing about? Without his sister? He didn't like the sound of that. He didn't want to go. But he had to.

"You have to be strong, Ryou." Amane smiled down at him, finally turning her head away from the window to look at her brother. Ryou looked up solemnly, never releasing his sister from the un-seemingly strong grasp he kept her fingers entrapped in. "Okay? You're gonna be all on your own now with daddy, so you've gotta stay strong and stick up for yourself, alright?" Ryou nodded, never moving his eyes from Amane's.

"Okay," He said in a small voice.

"I'm gonna miss you," Amane was holding her tears back as she knelt and gave Ryou a hug.

"Me too." Ryou sniffled, tears starting to slip through. "I don' wanna go!" Amane's tears slid down her cheeks as she patted Ryou's back and ruffled his hair.

"I know," She answered gently. "I know you don't. That's why you need to be strong. I'll visit as soon as I'm able, okay? I'm positive it won't be long, but still, until I visit, don't forget me, okay?"

Ryou stifled a sob and nodded. "O-Okay," He parroted back in a watery voice. "I promise."

But promises always get broken, Ryou was fast to learn, because the farther away he was, the more he forgot, and Amane never visited.

And when Ryou was six he was fast to learn, as he watched his father pack up and leave for his third dig [he had been gone for three months on each one, with barely a week in between to stay with his son], that not all grandparents had your best interests in mind as they tore apart the only family you had left.

_**~~Owari~~**_

So, how was it? [Sorry, standard question...] And, I know it may seem unfinished, but I have plans for a sort-of follow-up/sequel for this. Can't tell you about it as it's military secret, _buuuuuut... _XP

I can't promise when the follow-up will come out. I want to try and finish the next chapter of _Allure_ which should have been up a month and a half ago, and figure out what's going on next in _Spider and The Fly _and _Dragon of Crimson, Heart of White._ I also have a FMA short series that I'm working on...

Basically, I'm trying to get this all done before school starts, in between trying to get a job, volunteering, marching band, tennis, and AP summer work that I'm not done with yet. Oh, and cleaning my room... But, fear not! I will make a valiant attempt within the next three/two weeks to get it done! ^_^

Please read and review!

~~Paw-Chan Signing Out~~


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